Gia Carides’ Christmas movie is an unexpected Ballroom reunion

When Gia Carides was growing up in Sydney – with an English mother and a Greek father – the Christmas table was always crowded. “Our dining table was always open, it was an open door to our friends, and you had three daughters bringing home friends, boyfriends, best friends, whatever, and our table was always fun,” Carides says.

In many respects, it was too harmonious to serve as a deep vein to mine for her upcoming role in Nugget Is Dead: A Christmas Story. But if the film’s fictional frictions – estranged kids, unhappy parents and clashes of personality and social class – were not relatable, the fact that beneath it all there was a strong seam of familial love certainly was.

“It’s obviously a kind of Christmas movie trope that the family is the nightmare to go back to, and I think we grow up in our family and everybody’s got their safe landing places that are in their family,” Carides says.

“And then we have some agitation ... back in Strictly Ballroom, Scott was dancing different steps and really challenging his family dynamic. And in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the family are overbearing, but they’re also really deeply loving.

“In Nugget Is Dead we see three versions of a family, and the one that I am in the centre of is definitely dysfunctional and in flux because things are happening in that family. Jodie’s marriage is definitely in flux, it’s probably the best expression because it’s not quite over.”

In Nugget Is Dead Carides plays Jodie Stool, a mother of kids Steph (Vic Zerbst) and Ryan (Ed Oxenbould). She is separated from, but still living with her husband John (Damien Garvey). And if you’re trying to make sense of it all, the show’s production notes describe Jodie as a “highly strung hurricane”.

Co-written by Zerbst and creative partner Jenna Owen, the film is based on Owen’s real-life experience when a beloved family dog, Zuri, died during the Christmas season. The pair also star in the film; Owen plays Steph’s cousin Shayla Robinson, who has never left the family’s small coastal hometown.

The film also features former The Young Doctors star Diana McLean as Nan, Claude Jabbour as Shayla’s fiance Hassan Tahleb, Mandy McElhinney as Aunty Ros and Carides’ Strictly Ballroom co-star Tara Morice as snooty Josephine Hansard, the mother of Steph’s boyfriend Seb (Alec Snow).

Underscoring all of that is Leon (Lelong Hu), Ryan’s friend – platonic, we are assured – who in many ways represents the great unspoken demographic at the Christmas table: the family friend who finds themselves stranded on the sidelines as a family horror story unfolds between courses.

Carides credits the film’s very dry sense of humour to its writers, Zerbst and Owen. “They have blended a version of their families, and on set they would talk explicitly about different family members we’re based on ... so I know we’re all based on somebody real,” says Carides.

“They wanted Jodie to be neurotic and at her wits end and in desperate need of having her family gathered around her for Christmas, but we didn’t want to go cliche, so Damian Garvey and I really found the areas where they still loved each other and where they even might still need each other,” she says.

For Carides, who has been based in New York and, more recently, Los Angeles, for most of her working career, Nugget Is Dead is an unexpected connection between all her worlds. The film is releasing on Stan – which is owned by Nine, also the owner of this masthead – and also screened on the US network CBS last month.

“I am delighted that this gorgeous little Australian [film], that is extremely Australian and has an intrinsically Australian, very rugged sense of humour, is also airing on an American network,” she says.

After early roles in films such as Phar Lap (1983) and Strictly Ballroom (1992), Carides moved to America to start a family and secured diverse roles in Primary Colors (1998), working with director Mike Nichols, and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), with star Mike Myers.

Nugget Is Dead turned out to be something of an unexpected Strictly Ballroom reunion: in that film, Carides played the headstrong dancing champion Liz Holt, while Nugget co-star Morice was the film’s heroine, the hapless beginner Fran.

‘I am delighted that this gorgeous little Australian [film], that is extremely Australian, and has an intrinsically Australian, very rugged sense of humour, is also airing on an American network.’

Gia Carides

Though she is rarely credited for it, Carides’ Holt saves the day in Strictly Ballroom by pushing aside dancing judge Charm Leachman (Kris McQuade) and restoring the power supply needed to let Scott (Paul Mercurio) and Fran dance their winning Paso Doble to music.

“We had the bullying scenes where I’m literally standing above her, saying mean, awful things to her,” Carides recalls. “But Liz Holt does save the day at that moment. She plugs the music back in and allows Scott to dance his evil [non-traditional] steps.”

Most recently, Carides starred in the My Big Fat Greek Wedding franchise (spanning three films and a short-lived TV series between 2002 and 2023) as Cousin Nikki.

The first Greek Wedding film, which also starred Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Louis Mandylor, Andrea Martin, and Joey Fatone, was “a gorgeous time, where we really bond as actors, and we really become a kind of second family to each other. There is really a genuine connection and love between everybody,” Carides says.

The second Greek Wedding film came in 2016, filmed again in Toronto. “The timing was that I had just separated [from husband, actor Anthony LaPaglia], so it was beautiful to go to that second family and fall into their loving arms and create something beautiful with those actors and creators,” Carides says.

A third film followed in 2023, sending the Portokalos family to Greece. “We had the best time one could have in Greece, on speedboats, in private jets, at discos dancing. [Fatone and I] did all the fun stuff while the others were in the beautifully quiet Greek Village feeling the grief and loss of their father. And then it all crescendos in a beautiful wedding.”

Many of Carides’ films – such as Strictly Ballrooom and the Greek Wedding franchise – were stories that could easily have sustained more story. Nugget, too, feels like a film which has enough meat on the bone to sustain a sequel. And Carides is certainly open to the idea of returning to the “Nuggetverse”.

“I would say Nugget is ready for a sequel or something else because these families were adorable,” Carides says. “It was a love fest on that set. Everybody got on amazingly well. I would love to go back and see more of that world.”

In the meantime, Carides says Nugget Is Dead happily broke some old movie-making tropes, such as the one about never working with children or animals. Reuben, who played Nugget, was a rock star on set, Carides says.

“Reuben was adorable and could not be cuter,” Carides adds. “He’s a really cute dog. Did he do everything on take one as instructed? Let’s just say he didn’t. But he finally and naturally delivered a beautiful performance that they very cleverly captured,” Carides says.

Nugget is Dead: A Christmas Story screens on Stan

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